Connectors for coaxial cables having hollow inner conductors have been used throughout the semi-flexible coaxial cable industry for a number of years. For example, Rauwolf U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,533 describes a connector for coaxial cables having hollow inner conductors. Vaccaro et at. U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,636 describes a connector for coaxial cables having helically corrugated outer conductors. Doles U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,470 describes a connector for coaxial cables having hollow and helically corrugated inner conductors. Juds et at. U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,451 describes a connector for coaxial cables having annularly corrugated outer conductors and plain cylindrical inner conductors. Van Dyke U.S. Pat. No. 3,291,895 describes a connector for cables having helically corrugated outer conductors and hollow, helically corrugated inner conductors. A connector for a coaxial cable having a helically corrugated outer conductor and a hollow, plain cylindrical inner conductor is described in Johnson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,199,061.
The Johnson et at. patent describes a self-tapping connector for the inner conductor of the coaxial cable. Such connectors are time-consuming to install and expensive to manufacture. Also, when the inner connector is made of brass, overtightening causes the threads to strip off the connector rather than the end portion of the inner conductor of the cable, and thus the connector must be replaced.